Countdown 'Til Christmas
by Kohaku no Hime
Summary: A more fleshed out and interesting twist on the Christmas Carol we're most familiar with. Can be read as a sequel to my other oneshot, "Twelve Days of Yu-Gi-Oh!"
1. Atemu In A Tree

_...Yeaahhh...I would have done this on the thirteenth, but I had exams. __I've been sort of itching to write this for a while now, and then my bunnies pounced on this and said, "Hello! We haz idea for you."_

_There's going to be a little AU involved with this; if you've read the other "Twelve Days of Christmas" I've posted, then you know what to expect :D_

_I hope you enjoy and leave reviews on your way out (PLEASE)._

* * *

**On the first day of Christmas my muses gave to me,**

**Atemu in a tree.**

He was used to attention, don't get him wrong. He had been a Pharaoh in his past life and he was used to being in the figurative spotlight; he had countless people come before him in the court and even more who knew him and recognized him, and he had even been worshipped at one point. He was very used to the attention that had been showered on him as a ruler of Egypt.

What Atem was not used to were the hordes of the present-day fangirls that were currently clustered around the base of the tree, eyeing him as hungrily as they would a hamburger after being starved for three days.

He shot a venomous glare at them and moved higher into the tree, hopefully out of sight of the girls beneath him and sat on the branch. No wonder Yugi had been in shape when he had returned—this kind of life required being physically fit.

"I am not Yugi!" he shouted down to them exasperatedly, keeping out of sight of the cameras that the teenage fangirls were using to snap photos of him (something he was not a fan of in the slightest).

"Liar!" called one girl up to him. "Just because you have a tan doesn't mean that you can pretend you're not Yugi!"

"My name is Atem!" he snapped furiously. "Yugi is my…cousin!" he continued after a brief hesitation, remembering the cover story he was supposed to say if anyone asked (and really, it wasn't that far of a stretch).

There was a silence following this statement, and for one shining moment he thought they had left; there were no more shrieks wafting up to him and no more shouts of "MARRY ME!" piercing the air. He had been telling them about the identity mix-up since they had started chasing him, but unfortunately the fangirls seemed to be ignoring him.

He heard a rustling beneath him, however, and Atem looked down. Horror shot through him when he saw the two girls scaling up the tree. It turned out that there were some athletic fangirls in the crowd after all.

Time to find a new tree.


	2. Two Kaiba Brothers

**On the second day of Christmas my muses gave to me:**

**Two Kaiba Brothers**

**And Atemu in a tree.**

Seto snorted as he stared at the small pile of presents on his desk. Really now—no one got kudo points for giving him presents around Christmas; his employees often held that false hope that he would change his mind. He was not going to give anyone a raise just because they replaced that one pen that had broken when he had snapped it during that business meeting (in his defense, the representative from that one company was a moron).

He sighed before purposely sweeping the presents off his desk and onto the floor near his desk; he was not going to indulge in those presents because he was almost certain that he had no use for any of them. He would simply throw them away, but Noa and Mokuba insisted on going through them to find the more useful gifts; usually there was always something that the two of them could pass on to Roland or one of their friends, which was why he stopped throwing them out.

His eyes went to the picture frame that had gotten knocked over when some careless employee had brushed in their haste to put their present on his desk and he directed a scowl at the fallen packages; if they had the audacity to come into his office uninvited they could at least treat the objects already in here with a little more kindness. He made a mental note to tell Roland to tighten security—he didn't want any more of these presents.

Seto gently lifted the frame and his gaze softened as he looked at the two figures in the photograph. Mokuba and Noa had both taken a Christmas photo, courtesy of Thomas, and Mokuba had presented him with the Blue Eyes engraved frame just yesterday (he suspected it was mostly Mokuba's idea, since Noa's pride would not let him do something like this).

If it was not for the fact that it sounded ridiculously cheesy, he would be inclined to say that he already had what he needed that year for Christmas: both of his brothers were good enough for him—yes, even Noa, no matter how annoying he was.

He set the picture back down on his desk and turned his attention to look out at the people below, grimacing at all the traffic; clearly people had put off their Christmas shopping until the last minute. Going home was going to be a—

…What on earth was Atem doing in one of the trees out in front of Kaiba Corporation?


	3. Three Ishtar Siblings

**On the third day of Christmas my muses gave to me,**

**Three Ishtar siblings,**

**Two Kaiba brothers,**

**And Atemu in a tree.**

"I'm well aware that this is Christmas season for everyone else, but shouldn't there be a line for all the people who celebrate Christmas in January?" Marik asked irritably, shifting uncomfortably in the crowd and adjusting the basket in his arms that held their groceries.

Ishizu somehow managed to keep her irritation off her face when someone behind them shoved her impatiently. She looked sorely tempted to turn around and say something to the man behind them (who had not even turned when he had jostled her) but instead directed her weary gaze to Marik. "Unfortunately, Christmas here is celebrated differently," she said. "I doubt that the store manager will make an exception for us simply because we celebrate it at a different time of the year."

Her younger brother raised an eyebrow. "Rishid hasn't even been able to find a parking spot, Sister—he's still out there circling the parking lot."

"That's because of all the Christmas dinners being held; everyone's family is arriving in town," replied Ishizu, this time turning when the man behind her bumped into her again. She directed her attention at him and stated quietly, "Perhaps you could be a little more patient, sir. The line will not move any faster if you shove me."

The gentleman, a harried and balding middle-aged man, glared at her. "But the line is moving!" he snapped, gesturing to the people in front of them.

"Yeah, it's moving—all of two inches," muttered Marik under his breath.

The shorter man directed his scowl at the blonde Egyptian. "Really now, your sarcasm is unwarranted, young man. Haven't your parents taught you manners?"

Marik looked as if he wanted to laugh out loud. "Believe me, bud. You don't want an answer to that."

The other gentleman opened his mouth, no doubt to continue the argument, when a familiar shadow loomed over him. "Is there a problem, sir?"

The man took one look at Rishid's towering figure before hastily muttering a reply and shifting to another line. Rishid did not seem to be perturbed in the slightest by the reaction and instead looked to his younger siblings. "My apologies for arriving so late," he said, easily lifting one of the heavier grocery baskets that Ishizu had been carrying. "The parking lot was difficult to negotiate."

Marik grinned. "I think you made up for it by terrifying that guy. He was bothering Ishizu," he said cheerfully, adjusting the basket in his own hand.

"Was he?" asked Rishid, a hint of stern disapproval in his tone. "Everyone's manners lately seem to have vanished."

Marik shrugged idly, then frowned when he noticed a familiar person struggling to hold a few stray items. "Hang on a second. Rishid, take this for me?" he asked, passing the basket to his older brother before darting through the crowd.

He grabbed an empty basket and came alongside the shorter figure, holding it out to them. "Need a hand?"

Mokuba looked up gratefully at him, dumping the load of chocolate kisses and assorted items into the basket. "Thanks," he said. "I lost Seto a while ago…I think he went back outside. He hates crowds, and he didn't even want to stop here at all."

"Kaiba's here? How?" he asked, surprised. He would have thought the reclusive CEO would have imported his groceries instead of visiting a common grocery store. The idea of Seto Kaiba carrying a grocery basket or pushing a cart full of goods was…well, unimaginable.

Mokuba sighed. "I remembered I have to do a Christmas project that's due tomorrow when we were on our way home. We didn't have the materials at the house and I figured it would be easier to drop by and get some supplies instead of waiting for five hours. I guess not, though."

A shrill squeal broke through the air, followed by a horde of teenage girls. "OH MY GOD IT'S SETO KAIBA!"

Marik yelped and tugged Mokuba out of the way of the mob as they rushed by, staring after them with alarm. "Will Kaiba be all right?"

The black haired child nodded. "I think that's the real reason Seto didn't want to stop here," he replied with a grimace. "He probably didn't want to meet any of his fan club members."

* * *

Atem blinked in surprise when he heard rustling and he froze. His precarious position on the branch currently disallowed him from moving too far, but he had lost the crowd chasing him (the important thing, really). Unfortunately, he also had run out of energy at the moment and he would not be able to escape until he rested up; if a fangirl found him, then he was in hot water.

A few seconds later, Seto Kaiba lithely clambered into view and promptly sat in the branch across from him, watching the ground below with an annoyed scowl. "Thomas is definitely getting a pay cut…he's supposed to stop them from doing this," he said irritably.

"The fangirls are an unstoppable force," Atem said sagely, making certain that no one saw them. "I doubt anything can stop them."

Seto's head snapped up as he stared back at Atem. He promptly scowled and said, "Terrific. I'm stuck up a tree with a five thousand year old zombie."

"Better here than down there, Kaiba."

"...I think I may reconsider my options and swallow my pride."


	4. Four Toon World Monsters

**On the fourth day of Christmas my muses gave to me,**

**Four Toon World Monsters,**

**Three Ishtar Siblings,**

**Two Kaiba brothers,**

**And Atemu in a tree.**

Pegasus eyed the last of his creations with a jovial grin, scanning it into his computer and loading the image into the animating program. He could very well imagine the look of horror on dear Kaiba boy's face when he got this picture; the expression would be one worth dying for, he knew.

Pegasus paused at that thought, looking to the image on the computer. Hmmm…perhaps including a camera with the emails he was sending out would not be a bad idea. He would be able to catch that perfectly disgusted look that would appear on Kaiba boy's face if he did that; besides, he was curious as to the reactions of the recipients of the emails he was sending out.

A few expert clicks and a few added special effects later, the silver-haired man had finished the image that would be sent along in the email and he added it to the list of images waiting to be sent out. It only took him seconds to address the three separate pictures to their proper owners before sending them off; his email inbox received an email as well, and the man cheerfully opened the new mail.

CopyCat instantly popped out of a gift wrapped box the moment the email opened, holding a sign in its ballooned paws that read, "Happy Holidays!" on it, and Pegasus let out a chuckle of delight. Excellent; the programming animating this image had acted perfectly.

"My my, Pegasus," he said aloud, smiling fondly at his creation. "You've certainly outdone yourself this year."

* * *

"Ishizu?"

"Yes, Marik?"

"…You're seeing it too, correct?"

"Yes."

"And you, Rishid?"

"Most unfortunately."

"So then I'm not dreaming?"

"Again, most unfortunately."

"…Is there any special reason that Pegasus felt like turning the Winged Dragon of Ra into a sign-wielding cartoon, complete with a Santa hat?"

"I believe that this email doubles as a thank you to me for hiding the god cards, Marik."

"I do have to admit that there is something oddly appealing about it. It must have taken him time to come up with this, and even more to animate it. We will have to thank him."

"I know that, Rishid…but Pegasus better hope that Ra doesn't exact vengeance. I can't imagine Ra letting him go unscathed for this."

* * *

Noa did not even have to look at the computer to know Seto had gotten an email from Pegasus—the scowl on his face spoke louder than words. However, he did not know the context of the email that his brother had gotten. It had been enough for Seto to construct a very powerful virus and return the email to Pegasus with a vicious jab of the mouse.

The only clue he got as to the reason behind the virus was when Seto darkly muttered something about the Blue Eyes White Dragon being Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer.

* * *

Yugi couldn't help but smile when he noticed the little Kuriboh bouncing gaily on the screen. It had been quite the shock when he had seen the Toon Dark Magician and the Toon Dark Magician Girl leap from the festively decorated box, but it was a pleasant one to see; he knew Atem would either be amused by the sight of his cartoonized trademark monsters or displeased, but in either way he was glad for the email.

He frowned when he noticed the clock. Atem had not yet come back from the hardware store and the Egyptian had left forty-five minutes ago; Christmas traffic must really be abysmal, he concluded as he went back to sweeping up the shop.

What Yugi did not know was that Atem had never made it past the end of the street before he had been treed by yet another horde of fangirls.


	5. Five Sennen Items

_FYI: Yes, it's the summer and I'm updating this ridiculously early. My bunnies are weird._

* * *

**On the fifth day of Christmas my muses gave to me:**

**FIVE SENNEN ITEMS,**

**Four Toon World Monsters,**

**Three Ishtar Siblings, **

**Two Kaiba Brothers,**

**And Atemu in a tree.**

"Hey, Ryou! Yugi!" called Anzu brightly as she ran up to them, her breath fogging as it hit the cold air. "I have something for you guys!"

Both of the aforementioned teenagers turned their heads in surprise as Anzu came up to them. "Anzu," said Yugi, turning pink when he saw her. "What is it?"

"I have something for Atem and even one for Bakura. Can you give these to them?" she asked, handing both of them a brightly wrapped bundle. "I was making cookies the other day and I had some leftover dough. I think they'll like them…check them out," she continued as she handed similar plastic wrapped packages.

Yugi opened the bundle that Anzu had given him and lifted a cookie out, beginning to laugh when he saw what it was. "It's the Millennium Puzzle!" he laughed, looking through the package. "Here's the Millennium Rod…and the Millennium Eye's here too!"

"I think Bakura might appreciate that," said Ryou wryly as he looked at the Millennium Eye cookie. He looked through the rest of the cookies and frowned. "Wait a moment. There's only five; there's supposed to be seven here."

"I know, but I didn't remember the other two," replied Anzu sheepishly. "Shadi always had those items, so I never got to see them up close."

"It's all right. The gesture is enough," laughed Yugi. "I'm sure Atem'll like these—if I can ever find him. Lately he just seems to keep on vanishing."

* * *

Pegasus grinned as he finished his latest creation. "Let's see what you think of these, Kaiba boy," he said as he clicked the 'send' button. He would no doubt appreciate the four Toon Blue Eyes White Dragons on his latest Christmas card, and the camera attached to the message would catch dear Kaiba boy's reaction.

It had become almost a game, really; this was the fourth email he had sent Kaiba involving the Toon Blue Eyes White Dragons. Since Kaiba had marked all email from Pegasus as spam for the time being, Pegasus was amusing himself by sending the emails from different addresses he had set up on different accounts.

"My my, Pegasus. You really ought to do this more," he said cheerfully as he resumed reading his Funny Bunny comic book, missing Croquet's exasperated groan from behind him.

(He swore that, ten minutes later, he could hear dear Kaiba boy's frustrated roar in the distance)

* * *

Marik growled. "This is ridiculous."

Ishizu had to agree with Marik. The Santa Claus hat she was being forced to wear was itchy and she disliked it immensely, but at least it was slightly more comfortable then poor Rishid's reindeer antlers (there had been an accompanying nose involved, but Rishid had drawn the line at that last indignity) and the elf costume Marik had been forced into.

"I understand that this is uncomfortable, Marik, but perhaps if you had gotten a job elsewhere you would not be forced to help me out with the tours here at the museum."

"At least Rishid gets to stay in the back of the museum and out of sight of the general public! You're wearing just a hat! I'm out here in the open wearing _this_ get-up! Now I know your boss hates me," growled Marik, holding a hand up to block one tourist's camera.

"Huh. My boss hates me too but he's learned to deal with me," said a familiar voice abruptly as its owner materialized beside them. "Then again, I tried to kill my boss once, so I think a part of his dislike of me is kinda justified."

"You're Noa, aren't you?" asked Ishizu serenely as the younger Kaiba grinned cheekily up at them. "I've heard a few things about you before from Marik. What brings you to the museum?"

"Field trip for Mokuba," he shrugged, gesturing to a group of children gathered around a harried young woman wearing glasses. "Seto's in Germany right now."

As an afterthought he looked up at Marik and asked, "Hey, random question. What's two plus one?"

"Three," began the taller teenager just as a flash went off. He rubbed his eyes in surprise, completely blinded by the light.

Noa, meanwhile, looked down at his digital camera to examine the image. "Yup, that's perfect. Thanks, Marik!" he announced cheerfully as he went back to the group.

Ishizu was forced to drag her brother away from the main hall and away from the school group; she doubted her boss would appreciate an elf attacking one of the guests.

* * *

"Are they gone yet?" asked Bakura irritably.

Atem glanced over the side of the tree at the small group circling the tree. Thankfully there were no athletic fangirls this time in the small crowd gathered there, but it was still infuriating to deal with. "Not just yet."

An almost snarl came from Bakura at the Egyptian's reply. "I'm going to kill Ryou. 'It won't hurt you to leave the Millennium Ring at home for one day.' HA! When I get down from here I'm giving him a piece of my mind—_and for the final time I'm not getting together with Marik so quit asking me!" _he roared as he spotted a homemade poster one girl was waving up at him.


	6. Six Hell Bent Villains

_If it had not been for a friendly reminder I would have forgotten to write and post the next chapter for this series. Thanks, _PurpleWildcat2010,_ for the PM!_

_Quick note: keep in mind this fic is AU-ish. You'll understand why I'm saying that in a minute._

* * *

**On the sixth day of Christmas my muses gave to me: **

**Six Hell-bent Villains,**

**FIVE SENNEN ITEMS,**

**Four Toon World Monsters,**

**Three Ishtar Siblings,**

**Two Kaiba Brothers,**

**And Atemu in a tree.**

"I want revenge on the Pharaoh!" Anubis declared.

Bakura rolled his eyes, crossing his legs and floating easily in the darkness. Once someone had been in the Shadow Realm long enough it was easy to learn how to navigate in the plane, including avoiding the usual ghoul every now and then. "Get in line for that one."

Paradox scowled. "If not for him there would not be such a morbid fascination with the card games! The fate of the world would not be in the balance, so to save it I have to—"

"Not to be rude, but that's already been done," Bakura pointed out with a bored expression. "Multiple people have tried that approach," he continued, gesturing to the man floating nearby. "Take Yami no Marik, for example."

Yami no Marik did not comment—his current fascination was with an overlarge lollipop procured from some random location (likely some poor child) and he was not entirely paying attention to the conversation.

"He doesn't count!" argued Paradox. "He merely went small scale! He did not come close to destroying the world!"

Bakura shot him a distinct _are-you-kidding-me_ look. "Yami no Marik makes the Devil himself tremble in fear. But if you really want to argue apocalyptic proportions, we've already had someone try to destroy the world," continued the thief, gesturing to Dartz. "What _are_ you doing in here, anyways?"

"Waiting until my sentence is over. When it is finished I can leave—no sooner," replied the man brusquely. "And…Paradox, is it? My plan was better."

"How so?" asked the other man, a hint of challenge to his voice.

"My plan did not involve time-traveling motorcycles," Dartz deadpanned.

Bakura rolled his eyes and went back to watching the shadows; every now and then they would part into the mortal plane, allowing for escape. He did not fancy staying in here longer than he had to, especially with this crowd of imbeciles—Gozaburo might come back and frankly it was bad enough in here without him.

* * *

"Jounouchi, what is that?" asked Honda in a whisper, mindful of their teacher as he leaned over to look at what the other teenager was doodling in his notes.

"I'm making a list of the items," whispered Jounouchi back, returning his attention to the paper. "So far I've drawn the Sennen Eye and the Sennen Puzzle…and I'm working on the Sennen Rod."

"Why?" asked Honda, making sure the instructor was facing the board before looking back over.

"Can you think of anything else to do?" countered the blond. "This math class is boring and I want to see if I know the items."

Anzu, who was sitting behind Jounouchi, peered over his shoulder. "Jounouchi, why does that frisbee have teeth?"

"It's not a frisbee!" snapped Jounouchi in a low voice, looking peeved. "It's the Sennen Ring!"

Yugi craned his neck to look. His position diagonal from them did not allow a good view, but he had overheard the conversation and was curious. "What other items do you have?" he asked, leaning over after making sure the teacher's attention was diverted.

"I can't remember the rest," muttered Jounouchi, sighing. "I should—we saw enough of them."

"What about the Sennen Key?" pointed out Yugi. "That was one of Shadi's items."

Jounouchi's eyes brightened. "Nice, I hadn't even thought of that!" he replied, returning his attention to the notebook—and then he paused. "But what does it look like?"

No one got the chance to reply. The teacher had finally caught onto the fact that several of his students were not paying attention and stalked over to confiscate the notebook.

* * *

"I'm having so much fun it should be illegal," cooed Pegasus as he put the finishing touches on the latest Toon Blue Eyes White Dragon (this one decked out as a reindeer pulling a sleigh, with Pegasus himself dressed as Santa Clause). "Poor Kaiba boy might actually lose his mind this time."

He paused, eyeing his creation with a critical eye. "But then again…Croquet, four Blue Eyes might be a tad predictable, wouldn't it?" he asked, catching the other man off guard.

"Er…it would, sir." Croquet had learned how to accommodate his employer over the years.

Pegasus frowned, studying the computer with a small pout before his eye brightened. "Oooh, I know what I'll do!" he said, clapping his hands. "Toon Blue Eyes, you're too lonely as you are! Let's add some friends for you, to help you pull the sleigh. The Red Eyes Black Dragon as a toon would be absolutely adorable with the Blue Eyes, and of course we _must_ have Copycat! He could turn into a toon version of dear Kaiba boy!"

As Pegasus went to work Croquet was positive that this would be the last time he saw his employer alive; Kaiba was bound to lose patience with this sooner or later.

It might be sooner, given the fact that Pegasus had just given Toon Summoned Skull some mistletoe and was programming it to smooch the screen when the email was opened.

* * *

Marik shook the snow out of his hair as he came into the house. "I've fixed the problem," he announced brightly as he padded into the kitchen.

Rishid looked over at him from his place at the kitchen table; he and Ishizu were in the middle of translating texts from an archive found in the tomb of a minor lord and up until that point had been hard at work decoding it. Ishizu was still at it, her blue eyes never moving from the plastic-protected papyrus.

"What problem?" asked Rishid, trying to remember if there had been some issue with Marik lately that he had missed.

"The problem of the Kaiba brothers having incriminating evidence of my brief time as an elf," Marik replied, rummaging in the refrigerator. "I have negotiated with them and Noa's promised not to distribute the photograph."

Rishid raised an eyebrow. "Did you do anything illegal?"

The shorter Egyptian planted his hands on his hips, scowling. "Oh come on, not everything I do breaks the law."

"With you, Marik, it is either illegal, close to illegal, or something I'm better off not knowing about," said Ishizu, never looking away from her work. "Which is it?"

Marik puffed his chest out. "I'll have you know that I actually procured the means of insuring Noa's silence legally," he said proudly. "He might appreciate my methods—after all, business is business and I negotiated with him through those terms."

Rishid and Ishizu exchanged tired glances. They could expect to hear from Kaiba later.

* * *

"_THOMAS!"_

The bodyguard blinked and looked at the entrance to the kitchen, not entirely surprised when Noa stalked into view. He had been expecting this visit from the mint-haired Kaiba at some point this week.

Mokuba, on the other hand, had not. "What's wrong, Noa?" he asked, looking concerned. He set the bowl of cookie batter down (he had been making oatmeal raisin cookies for Seto, who was coming home from Germany that evening—oatmeal raisin was his favorite, though Seto would never verbally admit it).

Noa pointed a finger at Thomas. "_You_."

"Yes, me," replied Thomas, leaning against the counter casually. "What about it?"

"Don't play innocent. You are supposed to protect our family from assassins, kidnappers, and from the gossip hungry media," snapped Noa, scowling.

"I wasn't aware that I had done anything to contradict those orders," Thomas commented with a careless shrug.

"EXPLAIN THIS, THEN." Noa brandished a small photograph, looking utterly furious.

Mokuba climbed down from the stool he'd been sitting on and came over to his stepbrother, a curious expression on his face. "What is that?"

"That would be a photograph of that time with the sixty or so bug bites," growled Noa, glaring daggers at the taller man. "A photograph I don't remember being taken."

Sure enough, photograph Noa was bright pink from where the calamine lotion was on his body, looking very much like an owl caught in the daytime; his blue eyes were glazed and his hair was tousled, the overlarge t-shirt hanging off of him.

"So...?" Mokuba was confused.

"So tell me, Thomas, how did Marik Ishtar get a hold of a copy of this photo?"

Thomas held his hands up defensively, palms out. "He bribed me with almond studded brownies. I was overpowered."

* * *

"Excuse me!"

He paused, looking around in some confusion.

"Up here."

He looked up into the thick cover of the tree above him, trying to see who was hiding from view.

"I can't see anything from up here and your footsteps don't sound like a girl's. Do you see any hordes of screaming women around? If you do, kindly redirect them from here and make sure to mention that the man they're chasing is not in this tree."

He looked around at the park's surroundings with a confused frown on his face. "It doesn't look like anyone's around." he said at last.

There was a relieved sigh. "Good. I might as well live in a tree for the rest of my life if I'm only going to be chased by fangirls…thank you for your help."

"You're welcome," he began, starting to walk away. He did a double take, however, when he realized that he recognized the voice coming from the tree and returned to the base of it. "Pharaoh?" he asked incredulously.

The leaves rustled. "I know that voice…"

Atem's head came into view from between the leaves. "Raphael? What are you doing here?" he asked, clearly surprised (and embarrassed) when his gaze landed on the blond beneath the tree.

"I was on my way back to my car. It's too icy to drive a motorcycle in this weather," replied the other man with equal surprise. "Why are you in a tree?"

"Our earlier conversation did not give that away?"

Raphael's frown deepened before his expression cleared. "Oh."


	7. Seven Alistershrooms

_I had so much to do yesterday, which explains the delay. The next installment will be up at some point today, hopefully putting me back on track._

_Now this one's a little...different. Anyone remember the Legendary Heroes arc?...No? Keep it in mind :D_

* * *

**On the seventh day of Christmas my muses gave to me:**

**Seven Alister-shrooms,**

**Six Hell-Bent Villains,**

**FIVE SENNEN ITEMS,**

**Four Toon World Monsters,**

**Three Ishtar Siblings,**

**Two Kaiba Brothers,**

**And Atemu in a tree.**

Valon leaned back and studied his handiwork. "Yup! I reckon tha' this'll do it," he announced brightly, setting the paintbrush down.

Alister had not entirely been paying attention to the younger teenager, but as he passed by the coffee table he stopped and stared at what was sitting innocently on the table. "Valon…what…?"

"Admirin' my creative ingenuity, I see," Valon declared proudly, gesturing to the plate. "See, I told you that you looked like one."

Alister lifted the mushroom off the plate and glared at it. "What _is_ it?"

The cap of the mushroom had been painted red, two triangular notches cut into it. Gray circles had been painted onto the stalk of the mushroom, with what suspiciously looked like a purple tanktop painted onto the bottom.

"Wha'd you think it was?" asked Valon, grinning. "I's an Alister-shroom!"

Alister's eye twitched. "You do realized I was going to use that mushroom for tonight's dinner, right?" he asked, visibly annoyed. "You've turned an ingredient into a mini-me."

"You could jus' go get another one from the fridge, chum," replied Valon nonchalantly. "I's not that big of a deal."

The red-haired biker raised an eyebrow but disappeared into the kitchen. Valon shrugged, surprised that his older friend had not tried to maim him (as was the case whenever Valon did something Alister termed as 'facepalm worthy'). "Too bad there's only one of you," he said idly, poking the mushroom and knocking it over on the plate.

"_You painted the other mushrooms?"_

"Oh yeah, forgot I colored in the other six…now 'old on, Alister, Raph said you're not allowed t' try and kill me anymore and—_RAPH 'ELP!_"

* * *

Seto blinked. "…Huh."

Noa looked up from his laptop. "What's 'huh'?"

"Guess who I found hiding in my computer?"

Noa rose to his feet and peered over Seto's shoulder. Seconds later he backed away, his face twisting. "Why are the Big Five on your computer?" he snapped, glaring. "Can you see if Fa—Gozaburo is with them?"

"I don't know. I thought you'd sent them to a different part of cyberspace, anyways. That or deleted them."

"Looks like they have nine lives," Noa said darkly.

From the computer came an evil chuckle. "_After long, hard work we have found you at last, Seto Kaiba. And we even found you as well, Master Noa. Truly a great accomplishment! Now we can wreak vengeance on you for our imprisonment!"_

Seto and Noa both exchanged glances.

"_And, as an added bonus, we even found an old acquaintance of yours!"_

On the screen Witty Phantom appeared next to the former board members and bowed. "_Hello, Kaiba," _he greeted with an evil grin. "_Did you miss me? It's been so long…maybe we should play again, in your little—_"

"Oh _shut up_," groaned Noa, and Seto typed something into the computer with a few expert taps of his fingers.

Within seconds the Big Five and the Witty Phantom were scrambling around on the screen, desperately trying to avoid being blasted by the irate Blue Eyes White Dragon; the firewall conveniently set up hampered their progress in their escape.

Noa left the room briefly, returning moments later with popcorn in hand. He set the bowl down and watched the computer with interest, taking a handful and beginning to munch on it.

Seto merely smirked. "You were saying?"

* * *

Shadi eyed the small group contemplatively.

His perch on the rooftop was mostly ignored; if no one thought to look on the roof for a turbaned man no one would do it (and admittedly the Sennen Ankh was doing a remarkable job of keeping his presence hidden).

Beneath him he could see the former vessel of the Pharaoh's spirit chatting gaily with his friends, among them the former owner of the Sennen Ring; they also had not yet spotted him, but based on the fact that he could not see either the Pharaoh or Bakura it was safe to assume that they were someplace else at the moment.

He'd already caught a glimpse of the elusive tomb robber—Bakura had never liked him and avoided him on purpose—with the Sennen Ring on his neck, and based on the fact that he could not see Yugi wearing the Sennen Puzzle it was safe to assume that the Pharaoh had it; he could use the Sennen Eye hanging from a cleverly crafted chain around his neck (one that did not pierce the item itself) to see if that was the case, but he decided against using it—and using the Scales to test them. It was obvious there was no blatant misuse of power here.

He turned his cloak and when, on a whim, Yugi looked up at the rooftop there was no one there.

* * *

"Master Pegasus, I know I would be out of place if I suggested it, but perhaps you're going a bit overboard?"

Pegasus chuckled. "Nonsense, Croquet, I never 'go overboard'," he replied airily, eyeing the handiwork of one of his more industrious employees. "Besides, these plushies are simply too exquisite to keep to myself."

Croquet sighed, his eyes sweeping over the four dolls on the table. There was a Toon Dark Magician, addressed to Yugi Mutou; a Toon Red Eyes Black Dragon, this one labeled for Jounouchi; a Toon Blue Eyes White Dragon, for Seto Kaiba; and a Toon Winged Dragon of Ra, marked for delivery to a Marik Ishtar.

"Sir, I have to protest. Antagonizing Seto Kaiba at this point is ill-advisable, especially since he sent you that devastating computer virus," Croquet pointed out. "The others are fine, but surely you can find someone else to amuse yourself with?"

Pegasus arched an eyebrow. "But Kaiba boy always has the best reactions," he said calmly. "Now be a good man and fetch me some packaging supplies."

Croquet sighed. He would have to check on his employer's life-insurance policy at some point this week.

* * *

"You're still in bed, Ishizu?"

The blankets shifted. "I feel abysmal," came the tired reply, followed by a fit of coughing that ended in a sneeze. "I have to go to work, though. Those documents—"

"—can be translated by Rishid and I," Marik cut over her firmly. "You just take it easy. We've got this."

Ishizu looked at him from the top of her blankets, her black hair askew and her eyes glazed (though there was a distinct light in them that told Marik Ishizu was uneasy about this idea). "If my employer does not see me there…"

"Ishizu, if I have to dress in drag to give you a sick day then I'll do it," Marik deadpanned.

Rishid came in behind his younger brother, grimacing. "Marik I believe you do not have to go that far," he admonished, setting a glass of water on the table with a small box of pills. "But the point has been made, Sister. You remain here for the day—we will translate the Greek noble's documents."

Ishizu considered this for a moment and sat up, directing her gaze to her younger brother. "Marik, this is not to be used as an opportunity to get revenge for the elf costume."

"What?" asked Marik, affronted. "I would never dream of doing anything to another human being!"

The older Ishtars looked pointedly at their younger brother.

"I'm serious!" said Marik, leaning forward a bit.

Perhaps it had not been a good idea to move. Several prank items fell out from the inside of his shirt and at his feet.

Rishid and Ishizu continued to look at him.

Marik sighed. "I'll just…put these away now."

* * *

Noa took another handful of popcorn. "Ohhh, Gansley. You stayed too long in one place," he said, grinning when a pained yell came from the computer.

Seto said nothing as he watched his Blue Eyes White Dragon, but he too took another handful of popcorn.

* * *

Atem glared at Bakura. "You said this was your house?"

"I did," replied Bakura, eyeing the ground below.

"And that you locked yourself out?"

"That's right."

"And that Ryou had a spare key in the window, and to get it you needed me to help you up to the window?"

"Three and o, Pharaoh."

The former Pharaoh continued to glare. "You lied to me."

"I did not!" retorted Bakura. "I merely bent the truth. Ryou's house is in this vicinity, but this is our neighbor's home. The prat stole one of Ryou's packages—I am merely trying to steal it back."

Bakura glanced at the ground. "Or I was, until those mongrels tried to eat us."

Atem rolled his eyes and eyed the two dogs at the base of the tree, both of which were snarling up at them. "If it is not a crowd of screaming girls, it is a set of rabid dogs. Yugi is going to _love_ my excuse this time."

"Maybe I can kill them both, make it look like an accident…"

"Ryou is not the type for violence, but if you harmed an animal I think he might actually kill you."

There was a long pause. "…We're going to be here for a while."


	8. Eight Friendship Speeches

_Killer headache was killer. I did not get to finish this yesterday because I was quite convinced that my skull had split open._

_The other chapter WILL be up tonight, come Hell or high water. In the meantime, here is the next installment...and I sorta cheated (you'll see what part I'm talking about - like, almost immediately)._

* * *

**On the eighth day of Christmas my muses gave to me:**

**Eight Friendship Speeches,**

**Seven Alister-shrooms,**

**Six Hell-bent Villains,**

**FIVE SENNEN ITEMS,**

**Four Toon World Monsters,**

**Three Ishtar Siblings,**

**Two Kaiba Brothers,**

**And Atemu in a tree.**

"I have my friends to give me strength!"

_Click._

"You are nothing without friends!"

_Click._

"I believe in my deck and in my friends!"

_Click._

"With my friends to back me and support—!"

_Click._

"Friends are—"

_Click._

"—the power of friendship—"

_Click. Click._

"That's what friends do—"

_Click. Click. Click._

_"_Friends—"

_Click. Click. Click click click click._

"What can you show but not see? The answer is friendship."

Yugi dropped the remote onto the sofa cushion, pausing the dueling DVD that Pegasus had sent to him (Yugi strongly suspected it had been on a lark). He looked at Jounouchi with a frown. "I just realized that I sound like a broken record."

"No worries, Yugi. I've probably said the word 'friend' at some point in my life and compared to Anzu…God knows she's my friend, but she never shuts up when it comes to friendship."

* * *

Alister's eye twitched again. "I am going to _kill_ him."

This venomously hissed statement drew several worried stares from the other shoppers at the grocery store, and Raphael sighed. "We've been over this. You are not allowed to murder, maim, rip off limbs, torture violently, or otherwise bring harm to Valon," he listed monotonously, putting a head of lettuce in the grocery basket on his arm (and causing the other shoppers to take several steps back from Alister).

"Have you seen what he's done this time?"

The blond paused. "No."

Alister pointed with a vicious jab at one section on the wall. "Then look," he snapped through gritted teeth.

Raphael followed Alister's finger, his eyes landing on the small carton labeled 'Mushrooms'. Seconds later, he had to stifle his laughter. Valon must have known they were going to this particular store—he had painted seven of the largest mushrooms in the carton to look like Alister and had stacked them along the top of the carton. A small notecard next to them read _Want an Alistershroom?_

"You've got to give him creativity points," he admitted, turning his laugh into a cough when an indignant glare was directed at him.

* * *

"Are you two idiots done arguing yet?" asked Dartz with a groan, dropping his head into his hands.

Anubis glared at him. "I'm not the zealot who's arguing!"

"Like you're any better, O Mystical Anubis? You were a zealot yourself!"

"At least I did not wear some absurd mask!"

"At least I did not turn into a molasses covered mutant!"

"At least I did not get beaten by three underage teenagers in a matter of minutes!"

"No, you just cheated and kicked Kaiba out of his own duel! Really hard to convince me that you worked hard at taking over the world, Anubis."

Bonz groaned. "They're starting a_gain_," he whined. Sid and Zygore both clapped hands over their ears and hunkered down in the shadows, letting out identical moans of dismay.

"There must be a way to silence them," said Dartz with a sigh, closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose wearily.

Yami no Marik blinked, looking over the top of the lollipop at the other four villains before glancing at the arguing pair hovering not too far away in the shadows. "If you two don't silence yourselves I will take this lollipop stick and ram it through both of your skulls," he announced pleasantly, though the look in his eyes suggested that this was not an idle threat.

Sudden silence fell.

* * *

"So…let me have this right, Bakura. Pegasus sent us an email again?"

"Yes."

"And he addressed it to the both of us."

"Doing great so far."

"This is the part you lost me on. You say he did _what _to the Sennen Ring?"

Bakura rose to his feet stiffly. "See for yourself. It's horrendous."

Ryou had long since learned that whatever Bakura deemed as 'horrendous' tended to be adorable or cuddly in some fashion, and given that it was another email from Pegasus it was best to take this with a pinch of salt (and caution—it _was_ Pegasus, after all). He sat down in the seat that Bakura had vacated and went to his email, looking in the inbox. Finding the email, he clicked on it.

And then stared when a cartoonized Sennen Ring started dancing across the screen, singing, "We wish you a Merry Christmas" in a high-pitched voice.

No wonder Bakura was disgruntled.

His eyes went up to the address bar and grimaced. "It seems we aren't the only ones who got an email of this nature. Yugi, the Ishtars, and…Pegasus himself, oddly enough…they've all gotten one too."

Bakura snorted. "The one consolation to this blatant desecration of my people's sacrifice is that I ripped his eye out earlier."

* * *

Seto eyed the package warily. "And you say this is from an unmarked sender?" he asked, poking the brown-wrapped package with a pen. "Why would I open it?"

"It has an Industrial Illusions logo on it," Roland explained, though he was also looking down at the package with a guarded expression. "I believed it reason enough to bring it to you."

"Besides, boss, I figured that it might be something important if he sent you three others," Thomas added helpfully.

Seto made a face. "I'm choosing not to answer this one. If I know Pegasus, I'm not about to open this or the other three he sent me."

As if on cue there was a whirring sound from within the boxes. Roland and Thomas both reached for the guns at their belts, but before they could draw them out the boxes burst open. Seto leaned back in visible surprise—

—and four spring-loaded Toon Blue Eyes White Dragon plushies hit him in the face, a loud smooching sound coming from speakers in the bellies of the dragons. Seconds later they promptly began singing, "I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus," in four differently pitched voices.

Seto's face spasmed and he swept the boxes off the desk with a vicious swipe of his arm. "_I'M GOING TO MURDER HIM."_

* * *

"Marik, are you sure that's edible?"

"It's soup, Rishid," Marik said in a matter of fact manner, looking fondly down at what Rishid honestly believed to be tar. "See?" he continued, lifting a spoonful of it up (now it looked like mud-covered tar) for his brother's inspection.

Ishizu had seen it from her place at the table. "Marik, I've been feeling nauseous all day," she said, huddling under the quilt she had brought from upstairs (though it could have also been out of mortal terror). "Perhaps I will eat some later, when it has had time to…congeal."

Marik blinked at it with a frown before his expression cleared. "You've got a point. I'll dish you some up and you can have some later, Sister. Rishid and I will go ahead and eat."

Rishid looked desperately to his sister. He loved his younger brother and would do anything that he asked, even lay down his life to protect his brother's…but there was no way on this earth that he would be able to eat Marik's cooking.

* * *

Noa looked at Mokuba in concern. "How long has he been in the shower?" he asked his younger brother. "There's steam coming out from under the bedroom door."

"In Seto's own words: 'When the taint has been suitably removed.' He said that nearly an hour ago."

* * *

Atem studied his handiwork with a weary but triumph smile. "There—it's finished," he announced brightly.

Jounouchi and Honda, who were standing below the base of the tree, were trying not to laugh at the haphazardly built mess of boards in the branches of the tree above them. "What is it?" they asked at the same time.

Anzu tried not to smile. "It's a tree house."

Atem was proud of his handiwork and missed the amused expressions on his friend's faces. "This shall be my home base. Be it fangirl or dog, this shall be the tree I climb when endangered," he explained proudly. "See? It is even more comfortable than all the other trees and it is close to home, which means Yugi will not have to search all hours for me!"

He clambered up the rope ladder and stood on the platform, jumping up and down experimentally on it. "I may have been a Pharaoh—and this is admittedly a shoddy job—but this will not fall!"

There was an odd chittering sound and then several bundles of fur barreled into Atem. He let out a highly undignified yell and began thrashing, trying to pry the creatures off of him. "Get off!"

Yugi came outside with a tray of cookies. "Grandpa just made these," he began, but then his eyes went to the tree Atem was flailing in and he stared. "Why didn't anyone stop Atem from making that tree house in that tree? That's where the squirrels in this neighborhood live!"

Jounouchi held a palm out expectantly to Honda. "Pay up—Atem finished it and _then_ he got attacked."


	9. Nine Random People

_So it's a little shorter, but it still has all the elements of the song in it; I merely combined a few things here and there, because we've reached the really tedious part of the carol. By the way, an amigurumi doll is a crocheted doll that looks adorable; look it up if you don't already know what it is._

* * *

**On the ninth Day of Christmas my muses gave to me:**

**Nine Random People,**

**Eight Friendship Speeches,**

**Seven Alister-shrooms,**

**Six Hell-bent Villains,**

**FIVE SENNEN ITEMS,**

**Four Toon World Monsters,**

**Three Ishtar Siblings,**

**Two Kaiba Brothers,**

**And Atemu in a tree.**

"Ta-daa!" sang Shizuka, holding up one of the dolls for her own inspection.

The amigurumi dolls were made to perfection; Shizuka had learned how to crochet in the days before her eyesight had gone bad and she had plenty of practice under her belt. As a result she had bought tons of yarn and had knitted dolls that resembled some of her friends.

She reached for the piece of paper and began studying it. "Let's see…I have Otogi…Honda…where is—oh wait, there's Mai. She's over by Jounouchi's…there's Rebecca's and the Professor's…Grandpa Mutou…Honda's…and Ryou, that's the last of them!"

She studied her handiwork with a triumphant smile and decided to attach the eight cards she had made for them; each little card had words of friendship in it, as well as a Christmas greeting. Jounouchi was someone she would be seeing in person and the other dolls were a second batch of amigurumi dolls she had made earlier (she had given them out already to their respective owners).

She could not wait to hand them out, she thought as she hummed to herself.

* * *

"…_And in other news, an interesting craze is sweeping through the market place. An as of yet unidentified person is choosing seven mushrooms each before painting them and identifying them as an 'Alistershroom'. So far no one has any leads on this individual, though he—or she—is paying for the mushrooms they paint on and—"_

"VALON!"

* * *

"Do you think it's safe to talk yet?" asked Paradox quietly, watching Yami no Marik from a safe distance.

"You saw what he nearly did to Anubis," Dartz pointed out, gesturing to the man rolling on the ground in agony. "Frankly, I did not think that a child's confection could be used as a weapon in that manner—I do not know if Anubis will ever see out of that eye again."

"This is preposterous," growled Gozaburo, who had shown up some time ago (wandering the Shadow Realm aimlessly did have its drawbacks). "I'm not going to be cowed by some brat with a lollipop complex!"

He stormed over to Yami no Marik—ignoring the warnings from Dartz and the other villains—and halted in front of him. "You think you can boss me around, brat?"

Yami no Marik did not look perturbed. In fact, he almost looked bored.

Not good.

"I have news for you," Gozaburo continued on, not realizing the danger he was in. "I will not be swayed by you! For God's sake, you are almost a fully grown man and you're sucking on a lollipop? Grow up!"

Yami no Marik eyed him for a moment before lowering the halfway finished candy. "You're right," he said, licking his fingers from where the lollipop had drizzled on them (and throwing everyone off). "I am acting like a child, aren't I? But as long as I am, I guess I'll need a jump rope. Do you know where I can find one?"

Gozaburo snorted. "No."

"Pity. I guess I'll have to make do with your spine," said Yami no Marik calmly.

"You don't scare me with your little threats!"

"I don't threaten. It's fact. And you, my friend, are about to learn that."

From their safe distance Dartz sighed. "I did warn that fool about aggravating him."

Even Zorc—who had shown up seconds ago—had to agree that Yami no Marik was someone they should not mess with as Gozaburo fled.

* * *

"So uhhh, the Sennen Rod was the mind-controlling one."

"Right. Keep going, Jounouchi."

"The Sennen Ring was 'kura's. That acted like a GPS."

"Good. Next?"

"The…Sennen Torch?"

"No, the Tauk. That was one of the Ishtars…?"

"Oh yeah! That one was like your daily horoscope!"

"Okay…weird but true. So what came next?"

"The Sennen Eye…eesh, that one's creepy. Mind reading and soul stealing."

"Right! So what came next?"

"The Sennen Puzzle, which is the Pharaoh's….it's kinda like a Swiss Army knife."

There was a long pause.

"What? Oh come on, Yugi, like you haven't thought that before? It does and has _everything."_

* * *

Pegasus was looking at his computer with a rapt expression on his face when Croquet came in with his daily comic book. "Sir?"

"Kaiba boy sent me an email," said Pegasus, not looking away from the screen.

When Pegasus clicked on the link four Toon Blue Eyes White Dragons instantly popped onto the screen, morphing seconds later into their real counterparts. They all let out identical bursts of lightning and instantly sparks flew from the computer, causing Croquet to haul his employer backward as the computer began whirring. Seconds later the device shut off, acrid smoke coming from the laptop's keyboard and the screen actually cracking.

Pegasus stared at it. "Well, well, Kaiba boy…it seems you didn't like my last gift."

"Sir, might I suggest that you quit antagonizing Mr. Kaiba? I believe he's tiring of this game."

"Oh, he was tired of it when I sent him the first email," said Pegasus airily. "A simple computer virus won't stop me!"

Croquet honestly wanted to lock Pegasus in the dungeon beneath them, before he did anything more to annoy Kaiba.

* * *

Ishizu's head was pounding and her eyes were crossing, but she had to focus on the Greek noble document translations. It was not that she did not trust her brothers, but she had to make sure that they had properly translated that one phrase, because when they had read it back to her it had not sounded right; they would not let her look at the translations because she was sick, but—

A large hand gently but firmly tugged the papers out of her hands. "Sister, you're only hurting yourself by doing that," admonished Rishid, moving the papers to a different place in her room.

Ishizu rubbed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose to relieve the pressure that was pounding her skull into oblivion. "I know. I do not doubt your abilities…"

"I understand. You merely wish to make certain of our progress. You may look over the translations when you have sufficiently recovered from this cold, however."

"Seriously, Ishizu, I'll hide them if I have to," added Marik as he came in, a mug of steaming tea in his hands. "And no, I did not make it," he continued when he saw his sister's face. "Rishid made it—after the fiasco with the soup, well…he hasn't let me cook."

* * *

Noa and Mokuba looked down, where the crowds of girls below them were hovering anxiously. "Where's Thomas when you need him?" groaned Noa, yelping when one fangirl nearly caught his ankle.

"I believe Kaiba asked that question earlier," Atem replied. "I get the impression that this Thomas is not a reliable bodyguard."

"He is when he has to be—which is only a small part of the time," Noa retorted. "The other half is spent annoying Seto."

At that point there was a loud whistle that broke over the squeals in the crowd. "Ladies, word's just come that Seto Kaiba is briefly giving out autographs in Domino Square. Now's your chance to get this elusive celebrity's penmanship for your own purposes, forever immortalized onto a scrap of paper, your purse, or even your face!" called a male's voice from behind them.

There was a squeal and then most of the crowd dissipated, running for the city square; the ones who remained eyed Atem hungrily (identifying themselves as his fangirls). Noa and Mokuba, having recognized the voice, grinned at each other and then scanned the crowd. "Thomas!"

"Hello!" he called back, waving at them. "Come on down before they come back—I think you've done enough Christmas shopping for the day."

The two younger Kaibas nodded and began climbing down before realizing Atem had not moved. "Are you coming?" asked Mokuba, watching him worriedly.

"No. Those fangirls would love nothing better than for me to climb down. But what you can do is let Yugi know I'm treed again, this time at the park, and I won't be able to get groceries."

Atem watched them below, grimacing. "I believe one of mine is drooling. Be careful that you do not bump into your own fangirl mob on your way home."


	10. Ten Exploding Fuzzballs

_Okay, confesstion time. I've been holding the chapters back - I didn't fall behind._

_Why? Because I was trying to time this so that the story would end on Christmas Day; when I did my math I realized it would have ended the twenty-second, not the twenty fifth. So I held the updates back a little bit - hopefully you forgive me for that._

_This one's different. Because the list is getting longer I'm starting to combine varying elements at different times, rather than keep them in chronological order; you'd be surprised at how difficult that is to do. I hope you enjoy it and I apologize for the delay!_

* * *

**On the tenth day of Christmas my muses gave to me:**

**Ten Exploding Fuzzballs,  
Nine Random People,  
Eight Friendship Speeches,  
Seven Alister-shrooms,  
Six Hell-bent Villains,  
FIVE SENNEN ITEMS,  
Four Toon World Monsters,  
Three Ishtar Siblings,  
****Two Kaiba Brothers,  
And Atemu in a tree.**

"Whose bright idea was this again?" asked Seto in a whisper, glaring at the objects over their heads.

Mokuba shook his head. "Pegasus, maybe?" he asked just as quietly.

"I object, Kaiba boy," murmured the silver-haired CEO, readjusting the large and somewhat obnoxious pin on his chest (which was his signature Toon World with Toon Red Archery Girl, Toon Summoned Skull, Copycat, and Toon Dark Magician Girl). "I like surprises, but not these kinds."

Espa and Mako both stared. "It was not you?" asked Mako softly, clutching his harpoon as he also looked at the ceiling. "Then who arranged this?"

Haga, Ryuzaki, and Bonz said nothing, instead huddling by the wall; Sid and Zygore (both of whom had accompanied Bonz) were underneath a table. Siegfried and Leon were not too far from the Kaibas, keeping a wary eye on the balloons above them.

The small group had been invited to deliver a speech about the Duel Monster circuits (Yugi and Jounouchi both had to decline, as had Marik and Mai—they did not need any more fame than they had already). Upon arrival at the conference room, however, it was to find that ten overlarge Kuriboh balloons were in the room, each having a sound-sensitive trigger that would activate the bombs attached to them.

And that was their current situation.

"No one make any loud noises," said Seto, cautiously moving toward the exit. "I'm sure that there's a really good reason someone decided to make the Kuriboh balloons volatile."

One of the Kuriboh balloons let out a squeak and its eyes lit up. Everyone stiffened, staying still for a long moment as the balloon continued to flash; there was a collective sigh of relief when the light faded from its eyes.

"When did that idiot CEO promise he would be back?" asked Haga in a hiss. "I mean, I'm flattered I got invited here and all, but I don't want to die either."

"I heard him. He said that he'd be back in ten minutes," supplied Leon helpfully.

Seto sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "This is going to be a long ten minutes," he muttered under his breath, wincing when a Kuriboh balloon began squealing again.

* * *

"Alister?"

"Hmm."

"How many times today have I had to remind you about Valon being your friend?"

"Eight times."

"Correct. And to recap, what is it that friends are supposed to do?"

There was the sound of a throat clearing. "I am not supposed to hurt him, attempt to murder him, and treat him as I would expect him to treat me," came a clearly memorized response.

"Meaning?"

"I shouldn't have tied him up, dressed him up like a piñata, and dangled him upside down from the nearest tree because he made Alistershroom balloons and sold them to at least seven little munchkins?"

"Precisely. Now cut him down before we have the police on our hands."

* * *

The Big Five stared as Gozaburo suddenly materialized into view. "Master Kaiba," they said in unison, varying stages of shock on their faces. "We thought you were dead!"

"I'm obviously not, fool—though this is the third time I've escaped death. I take it we are either in the computer systems or in the real world…which is it?"

"We are still in the computer," said Gansley, looking around them nervously. "And actually, sir, we've got a small—"

"Now that we're in control here it's time to take revenge on my dear stepson," continued Gozaburo, not noticing how uncomfortable the group was (nor their anxious looks over their shoulders). "That brat sent me here because he thought I would despise it, but I hardly see why Yami no Marik would think this would be punishment."

It was right about then that the Blue Eyes White Dragon caught up to them and resumed blasting, forcing all of them to start running once again from Seto's antivirus program.

* * *

Marik carefully handled the wire, grinning in some amusement as he studied his handiwork. "Yep. Pretty sure that they'll like this addition to the tree."

Yugi and his friends had surprised him by sending the Ishtars several cards (and cookies, in Anzu's case); Marik had decided to return the favor by making ornaments out of wire, five of which were Sennen Items; he'd been sitting in the family room for several hours now and he was certain it was an ungodly hour of the morning. Two of them were for Ryou and Yugi, another couple was for his sister and himself, and the last one would go to Pegasus—he _had_ sent them that plush and the Christmas card, after all.

There was a sound behind him and Marik turned as his sister shuffled down the stairs, the quilt still around her shoulders. "Marik, it's nearly three. You should be in bed," she chided.

The youngest Ishtar stifled a yawn. "I'm about finished. I'll paint these in the morning," he said, rising to his feet and stretching. He winced as his hands let out small prickles of pain—working with wire had its drawbacks and it had cut his fingers and hands in several places. "Why are you up? You're sick."

She held up her empty water glass in explanation, looking slightly exasperated.

"I can get that filled for you," said Marik instantly, getting it from her and shooing her back upstairs. "You go back to bed."

As his sister disappeared back upstairs and out of sight Marik turned to go into the kitchen—except he bumped into something that had come up behind him.

"You should be in bed as well," said Rishid, raising an eyebrow.

"What about you?" asked Marik, momentarily surprised by the sight of his older brother (how long had the eldest Ishtar been sitting downstairs, he wondered). "Is there a party I missed?"

"I was translating the Greek noble's papyrus scrolls for our sister," he reminded him, gesturing to the kitchen where he had presumably been working. "Please go to bed. I have to straighten things out in the kitchen anyway, so I can get Ishizu's water glass filled."

The older Ishtar eyed his brother when the younger opened his mouth to protest. "Forgive me for saying this, Marik, but you and glasses seem to have some sort of enmity going between you: every time you get one of us a drink of water the glass breaks. I like not having to buy water glasses to replace the ones you break."

"I've told you before that they do it on purpose. They're all plotting against me, I tell you."

* * *

Atem studied his watch, then eyed the ground below. Three in the morning and the fangirls were _still_ down there? They must have the patience of Job if they could still be waiting at the base of the tree at this hour.

This was the absolute last time he was running an errand for Grandpa Mutou—Yugi still did not believe that Atem was being chased into the treetops every time he ventured from the shop and frankly Atem was getting tired of repeating himself.

He glanced down again and sighed. "I only wish I had a blanket," he muttered, shivering as a gust of cold air blew past him.


	11. Eleven Shadow Games

_Aw. There's only one more after this :(_

_Anyways. The previous chapter brought up an interesting point in a review: the four Toon World Monsters were on Pegasus's pin, when he made his appearance in the first section of the chapter :D_

_Merry Christmas, everyone, and I'll see you next chapter!_

* * *

**On the eleventh day at Christmas my muses gave to me:**

**Eleven Shadow Games,  
Ten Exploding Fuzzballs,  
Nine Random People,  
Eight Friendship Speeches,  
Seven Alister-shrooms,  
Six Hell-bent Villains,  
FIVE SENNEN ITEMS,  
Four Toon World Monsters,  
Three Ishtar Siblings,  
Two Kaiba Brothers,  
And Atemu in a tree.**

Ryou did not entirely like the look on Bakura's face when he came back from whatever he had been doing all day; the thief had vanished earlier that morning claiming he was "Christmas shopping" and he could not help but wonder what Bakura was up to.

"Who do I need to send money to?" he asked wearily as the tomb raider came around the coffee table, watching him from his position in the arm chair (he'd been under the blankets all day, with a nice spot of tea to keep him warm).

Bakura snorted. "Come now, Hikari. When do I ever steal from—?"

"Birthdays, holidays, and last Tuesday. You're not fooling me, Bakura."

The other white haired man shrugged. "Can you blame me? The fools make it easy to do," he replied, setting the box on the table.

Curiosity had Ryou lean forward in his seat. "What is that?" he asked, looking to Bakura for an explanation.

"Something I found," came the brusque reply. "Think of it as a Christmas gift."

Bakura disappeared to presumably fetch wrapping paper while Ryou picked up the box, studying it. "Who on earth is this for?" he inquired. "I can't think of anyone who would want to learn to make shadow creatures with their hands."

Bakura held the Sennen Ring up and pointed it toward the box. "Couldn't find the wrapping paper. To answer the question, descendent, I can think of a few people who would make use of this book," he replied, a flash of light filling the room as the box vanished from view. "Now, this Santa Claus. Does he change his mind at the last minute or am I still on his naughty list?"

"That depends…why did you send that package to the Shadow Realm?"

* * *

Yugi stared at the plushies with some trepidation. "Grandpa, we did establish with the delivery man that these did not have any explosives in them, right?"

"Of course," came his grandfather's brusque voice from the back of the shop. "What do you take me for?"

Deciding not to answer that, Yugi returned his attention to stacking the Kuriboh plushies; he only had ten left to put on the shelf and Atem had vanished—again—so he was carrying a lot of weight in the shop. He was lucky the shoppers had hit a lull in that this would allow him to restack the shelves; the Kuriboh plushies were a new item from some small-time company that was on good terms with their shop, but he could not help but note the frazzled appearance of the delivery man.

He had ten left to go, but as he was stacking the last one his elbow jostled one off the shelf and onto the floor—and promptly let out a shrill squeal when it hit the floor, its eyes flashing.

Yugi had enough time to register what was about to happen before he took a flying leap behind the counter for cover.

* * *

"If there's another Kaiba Corporation tournament they should sign us up," grumbled Haga, hitting the table with a fist. They were currently at a nearby hamburger joint. "I mean, sure, Yugi gets to attend them by default. We should get a chance too!"

"Why, so we can get our butts thoroughly whipped again?" countered Bonz.

Ryuzaki, who sincerely did not care one way or the other (he had gotten used to Haga's constant ranting) merely sipped at his soda. He liked attending the minor tournaments—Jounouchi sometimes attended them and the chance for a rematch was higher there than in the flashier, larger tournaments.

"You have the wrong kind of spirit, my friend," chided Kajiki, munching happily on a shish-kabob. "If you want to attend you have to work hard at it and train up for it."

"It's not a boxing tournament, Fish Boy!" countered Haga in annoyance.

"But it would help if you didn't cheat your way through the tournaments," Espa Roba pointed out wryly.

"Oh, like you have room to talk?"

"You all annoy us, that you do," began one voice from behind them, causing the five teenagers to look over at the next table.

"But there must be another place for this conversation for you," finished another voice, and their eyes landed on two bald men sitting nearby.

They all exchanged glances. "And you are…?"

"Para and Dox," they said in unison, rising to their feet and folding their arms. "You all have intelligence of an ox."

"And I bet you spend all your time thinking up of lame sounding rhymes," muttered Ryuzaki, reaching for a nacho.

"Trust me, they were so much more annoying in Duelist Kingdom," said Kajiki sagely.

At that moment the door to the restaurant was kicked open and everyone shot a startled glance to the door, looking at the harried and disheveled figure in its doorway. "There's voices in my head—and _they're French!"_ he announced dramatically, sprinting out of sight with a panicked wail.

"…That was that Bandit Keith guy, wasn't it?"

"Yes, poor guy," said Espa. "He runs past our school at times. It's funny and pathetic at the same time…and then there's that weird masked guy that carries around that women's dummy for some reason. Between the two of them our school never fails to have entertainment."

* * *

Anzu winced. "Mai, I did not _really_ talk about friendship that much when I was younger, did I?"

The older blonde woman, currently taking full advantage of the spa day and relaxing under the masseuse's touch, replied lazily, "Hon, once you got started we couldn't get you to stop. I honestly debated on gagging you at times, because every time I walked into the room you had the word friendship on your lips."

Mai opened one eye and grinned at her worried face. "No worries, honey," she continued. "You weren't some friendship freak though. You only said the word 'friend' or some variant of it about eight times throughout the day, and that was only the times I was around."

She paused, thinking. "In fact, compared to the others—oh goodness, right there," she purred, relaxing further under the man's touch. "Anyways, compared to the others you were actually kind of tame. You honestly need to listen to Jou or Yugi sometime. Every time they duel they say the word friend at least five different times. Now quit worrying, Anzu, and enjoy this. It's not every day I win a girl's day out at the spa, you know."

* * *

"I feel like a cannibal."

Raphael thought about it, decided that it had something to do with Valon's current obsession with mushrooms, and continued to read his book. He'd find out what the complaint was soon enough.

When there was not an immediate reply, though, he sighed and bookmarked his place. "All right, I give. Why do you feel like a cannibal?" he asked, rising to his feet and padding into the kitchen.

Alister gestured to the nearly empty soup bowl, where seven nearly intact mushrooms lay in the soup. "Because I look at them and I think of the Alistershrooms. Hence, I feel cannibalistic."

"If it helps, Valon's head looks like a starfish."

"Yes, but we don't necessarily eat starfish, now do we?"

"I did say 'if', Alister," countered Raphael as he started rummaging through the fridge for something to eat for lunch.

* * *

Bakura's reasoning had been sound: by doing a good deed he would get back into that fat man's graces (because he did not care what anyone said, the fact that there was a man who knew if you were good or bad was downright creepy and he _had_ gotten coal one year).

Naturally, doing a really good deed would make Santa forget about all the petty thefts and minor lawbreaking Bakura had done over the year—so sending a gift to Yami no Marik should do something to get back on Santa's good side, probably even adding surplus. Besides, what could Yami no Marik do with a harmless book?

Trouble was, Yami no Marik was actually entertained by the concept of creating shadow creatures with his hands. He was even more delighted when he made around eleven of them and materialized them into tangible monsters before sending them after the other five villains stuck in the Shadow Realm with him.

It was amusing to watch them all run, especially from the shadow bunny he'd made.

* * *

"Do you ever wonder what Shadi uses the items in his care for?"

Jounouchi tossed down a card and drew from the deck, managing to keep a straight face when he noticed that he had just gotten a royal flush. "How so, Otogi?"

"I mean, the Ankh and Scales—I'm right, aren't I? Those are the names…?"

"Yeah," said Honda nonchalantly. "What about them?"

"I mean, compared to the Sennen Rod, Ring, and Puzzle those two items are kind of useless. I mean, how could you use them?"

"You could use the Scales to weigh your groceries," said Jounouchi nonchalantly as he set his hand down. "Pay up, guys—I've got last minute Christmas shopping to do."

* * *

Seto did not even bother opening the email Pegasus had sent him. His eye already started twitching when he noticed the four Toon Monsters attached to the message, and he didn't bother looking to see what monsters they were—he merely unplugged his computer, rose to his feet, and walked from the room.

Let's see what Pegasus would do if Seto ignored him.

* * *

Marik glared at the broken glass shards on the floor. "You leapt off the tray on purpose," he said, glowering at what remained of the glass on the floor. "Now I have to clean this mess up. Never mind the fact that I have to get Ishizu another glass of water,' he added, setting the tray down on the nearest table.

His intention had been to take Ishizu some lunch, since she was feeling under the weather and she was not leaving until she recovered completely (she was still miserably sick and barely ventured from her room—it had gotten to the point where she no longer asked about the nobleman's translations, something that bothered both of her brothers immensely). Breaking another glass, though, was something he could have done without.

"I believe I warned you last night about handling glasses," chided Rishid as he came around the corner, the broom in hand. "I will clean this up—you're in bare feet."

"I'm telling you, Rishid, the blasted thing literally dove off the tray. It had enough of life."

The corner of Rishid's mouth twitched. "I'm more inclined to believe it was murder."

Marik huffed. "I did not deliberately murder a water glass—although this would be the perfect crime, given that it would be hard to prove it was otherwise. Anyways, it was the glass's fault, not mine."

"Marik, do not fool yourself," called a feminine voice from upstairs. "You have always had misfortune when it came to anything fragile."

"You two are great voices of confidence," remarked Marik sarcastically as he picked up the tray and resumed his trek to his older sister's room. "Truly, I'm inspired to do my best, knowing that you both believe in me."

* * *

Mokuba had stopped by the Kame Game Shop with Noa to see if he could find any last-minute deals or to find Seto any gifts that he might have overlooked, but upon entry the two Kaiba brothers were greeted by a frazzled looking Yugi, who was covered head to toe in smoke and looked as if at one point his hair had caught fire.

Yugi only had one statement for the Kuriboh plushies that Mokuba noticed sitting innocently on the shelf: "_THOSE DOLLS ARE FROM SATAN."_

* * *

Atem stared at the locked door of the shop—and, might he add, his home—and let out a heavy sigh. "This _would _be the one time I forgot my house key," he said with a groan.

It had to be around midnight, giving the fact the stars were out and virtually no one was around, but Atem would have hoped that Yugi would have left the door unlocked to allow the Pharaoh entry in the event that he did not make it back in time.

Then again, though, that was operating under the assumption that Yugi thought Atem had a spare key—which he didn't.

Atem sighed again before moving mechanically to the front of the shop. There was a tree in the front of it that was about as tall as Yugi's window. With any luck he could simply climb the tree and hope Yugi was still awake—either that or simply break the window and claim it was a vandal.


	12. Twelve 4Kids Edits

_Okay, so there might be a bit of an epilogue coming later. We'll see._

_My parents rarely do any sort of parties for Christmas, but when they do they go all out. I've been swamped with parties since Christmas Eve - my mom's and brother's birthdays are today and tomorrow in addition to the Christmas parties - and I've not had a chance to sit down until today. Sorry for the delay and a belated Merry Christmas to you all!_

* * *

**On the twelfth day of Christmas my muses gave to me:**

**Twelve 4Kids Edits  
Eleven Shadow Games  
Ten Exploding Fuzzballs  
Nine Random People  
Eight Friendship Speeches  
Seven Alister-shrooms  
Six Hell-Bent Villains  
FIVE SENNEN ITEMS  
Four Toon World Monsters  
Three Ishtar Siblings  
Two Kaiba Brothers  
And Atemu in a tree.**

"I _know_ for a fact that this skirt was shorter," Mai grumped, staring down at her clothes with a frown. "And my shirt's low, but…is it not low enough or something?"

"You aren't the only one with a wardrobe malfunction," Vivian pointed out, gesturing to her signature yellow gown. "My dress is longer than I remember, and looser too. And if you look at your Harpy Ladies you'll notice they've got a wardrobe malfunction going on too. I was looking at your cards earlier."

Mai pulled out her deck and shuffled through it, a perplexed frown marring her features. "You know, Vivian, you're right," she said after a moment's pause. "I don't know what's going on...they certainly didn't look like that before."

The two women studied each other for a long moment before coming to a unanimous decision. "We need to go shopping when the stores open up."

Bakura stomped inside, causing Ryou to look over. "Here's your book," snapped the tomb robber irritably, huffing as he sat down.

"Thank you for picking it up for me, but what's wrong?"

"Eleven. I held _eleven_ games because people were being utterly ridiculous about their shopping, even though it's Christmas Day!" snapped Bakura. "But every time it got to the good part it was as if it got skipped!"

Ignoring his counterpart's indignant glare, he continued. "One minute the monster would be bearing down on them, the next they'd be on the ground twitching. The monster never hit them, and when on some off chance it did some white mist blocked me from seeing the actual blow! I know it hit them, but the fact it got obscured… IT'S UTTERLY RIDICULOUS."

Ryou glared, somewhat severe. "That's what you get for holding too many Shadow Games. Use the Sennen Ring one more time to hold a Shadow Game and I'm confiscating it."

* * *

"I'm only surprised that I didn't see you get hit by those dolls, Yugi. I was standing right next to you when it happened," his grandfather remarked sympathetically as he helped Yugi clean the various burns. "All that happened was that you walked over to the shelf and the next thing I know you're burned from where the Kuribohs exploded."

"Why are we still carrying those, anyway?" said Yugi, an unusual amount of annoyance in his words. "I thought we cleared them out last night."

"There were about ten people who reserved them to pick up today…though if they come for them they'll find that they'll only get stuffing. If we find that much."

* * *

"I've got your wallets back!" Kajiki announced proudly as he clambered out of the river, shaking his hair dry. "That pickpocket did not do a thorough enough job of disposing of the evidence."

"I get cold watching you swim in there," remarked Espa with a shudder. His younger brothers nodded in agreement, identical shudders rippling through the four smaller versions of their older brother. "How on earth could you have managed that without freezing to death?"

"The ocean's a lot colder than this at times," explained the fisherman as he handed Ryuzaki and Haga their drenched wallets. "I'm used to it."

That did not entirely surprise the group.

Kajiki blinked over at where his harpoon was holding the unconscious pickpocket, frowning in bemusement as he studied the trapped man. "I could have sworn that my harpoon pinned his clothes to the wall," he mused, padding over. "Yet it only pierced the wall…"

"You threw it so fast I didn't even see it," said Ryuzaki.

"I don't even remember throwing it," replied Kajiki with a deepening frown. "It was…bizarre."

* * *

"No."

"Come now, Kaiba boy, admit it," said Pegasus, smirking. "You know you have to."

"I'm not admitting anything," replied Seto stubbornly.

Noa sighed. "Seto, I'm admitting it," he said. "There's no way not to see the obvious."

"Your sanity has always been questionable, at best. Same goes for Ishtar," he added when Noa opened his mouth to comment. "Both of you are automatically ruled out of this discussion."

"I'm admitting it, though, and I'm perfectly normal," Otogi pointed out. "Come on, Kaiba, even you can't not admit it."

"I can. Very easily."

Dartz raised an eyebrow. "I do not doubt that you can," he commented, hovering in a transparent form above them. "But Raphael was swayed and even I had to admit that I can see why when similar reasoning was turned on me. The vessel of the Pharaoh can be very persuasive when he has to be."

"And he helped me too, Mister Kaiba," said Leon helpfully. "Yugi's helped all of us turn around at some point."

"Join the 'I was persuaded by Yugi to join the good side' club with us, Kaiba boy," added Pegasus cheerfully.

Seto glared. "Never."

"Of course he won't," said Noa with a sigh. "Seto's a very stubborn anti-hero. He won't admit the obvious truth—OW!"

Seto looked thoroughly confused for a moment. "All I did was lift my hand. I never intended to punch anyone."

He glanced at where Noa was glaring at him from the floor and smirked. "On the other hand…"

* * *

"RAAAAAPH!"

The blond, who had been comfortably situated on the recliner, jumped at the sound of Valon's distressed wail. His eyes searched the room until he found the Australian, but when he did an exasperated sigh escaped him.

"You antagonized Alister again, didn't you?" he guessed as Valon came up to him.

Poor Valon's hair had been dyed a deep shade of red, alternating white spots dappling his head; what made things worse for the teenager was that his hair had been styled exactly like Alister's, forcibly bringing the mental image of a mushroom to mind.

"I'm not goin' t' look like this forever, am I?" Valon asked, looking stricken. "I didn' think 'e'd get back at me like this, knockin' me out 'n' dyin' my 'air, but if I'm like this I'm—"

"Calm down," admonished the older man wearily. "I'm certain that your hair can be returned to its natural state in no time."

"Can' 'e take a joke? 'e wasn't this uptight about the other six times I teased 'im 'bout the mushrooms!"

"I've warned you about overusing the joke, Valon," Raphael explained as he ushered the boy into the bathroom.

"'e moved so fast I didn' even see 'im! I'm normal one second 'n' the next I'm like this! I didn't even see 'im doe this to me!"

"He does know karate and he's always been quick, Valon. That's not all that surprising."

* * *

Yami no Marik frowned. His shadow creatures had caught their victims by now (with the exception of Dartz, who had vanished somewhere along the way; it was all right, though, because now he could contend with that Gozaburo man again), but for some reason he could not see the monsters attacking the other villains.

Ah well. He could hear them scream. That was good enough for him.

For now.

* * *

Shadi could see Bakura ranting to his descendent through the window and resisted the urge to roll his eyes. The tomb raider had always been temperamental.

He had not thought that the problem would have extended this far—Bakura was not the only one having trouble performing the Shadow Games. The Pharaoh's Sennen Puzzle had been acting up, as had the Ring, Ankh, Scales, and Eye; he had needed to punish a trespasser for intruding in the catacombs in search of treasure, but the items seemed to have lost their potency. Either that, or some higher being was preventing the items from performing to their full capability.

The malfunctioning items were only a small part of the problem facing Domino. Lately anything that could be construed as being remotely violent or inappropriate was being censored or omitted altogether, causing problems city-wide; policemen could not take down criminals and firemen suddenly found their axes missing.

This was a problem that would need to be rectified as quickly as humanly possible.

* * *

Pegasus pouted when he checked his email. "Looks like Kaiba boy finally decided to ignore me," he sighed. "I should have asked about the email earlier when I saw him at that impromptu meeting, but…oh well."

He studied his hands for a moment before snapping his fingers. "There is always the fact I can send him Christmas balloons!" he exclaimed brightly, causing Croquet to groan. "Let's see, four Toon Blue Eyes should do the trick!"

"Sir, I would like to point out it's Christmas Day. I don't think Kaiba would—"

"—have anything in return? Posh, dear Croquet, that's the fun of it," replied his employer, already setting about to make the balloons. "His reactions are most amusing. Who needs gifts?"

Maybe Croquet should call Roland in advance and warn him of his employer's intentions. There was no guarantee on how much longer Kaiba would put up with this.

Pegasus suddenly paused, looking at something on his computer intently. "Wait a moment, who's edited my Red Archery Girl's seashells? The coloring is all wrong and she looks awful!"

* * *

Ishizu looked utterly relieved as she finished going over the last of the translations for the Greek noble's scrolls. Her brothers both had done wonderful jobs; although she'd had to correct them here and there—mostly Marik's translations, since the boy had a habit of getting irritated with translating and it reflected in his words—they were overall accurate. To top it off she was back to feeling one hundred percent and ready to resume work once the holiday ended.

Marik and Rishid, on the other hand, had simultaneously caught her cold.

She handed Rishid a glass of water and said, "Pass that to Marik, please."

"Oh come on," Marik said thickly, sneezing violently and huddling under the quilt. "I can handle my own glass!"

"You broke the first three I handed you, Marik. Any others broken and we'll find ourselves drinking from the bowls," she said firmly, watching Rishid set the glass on the table next to Marik before handing him another one. "It is for precaution's sake."

Marik sat up on the sofa a bit more and glared. "Yeah, because I'm such a hazard," he retorted, stretching his arms far out to the sides. One of his hands lightly bumped against the glass and before any of the three Ishtars could move they were staring at a broken mess of glass and water on the floor.

"…Not a word."

* * *

"Stick your hands in the air, Mister Kaiba!"

Thomas heard it before he saw it, his weapon out of his holster and pointed at the man behind his boss and Mokuba; Seto easily moved his youngest brother behind him and turned his attention to the man currently threatening them, looking bored.

Thomas kept his eyes trained on their attacker. "Easy there, friend," he chided, though his eyes were narrowed and there was an edge to his voice. "Let's put the gun down and talk about this like civilized men."

Mokuba, momentarily caught off guard by how quickly events had gone, stared in surprise. "What gun?"

Thomas blinked, looking at their attacker's hand. Sure enough, the man's hand was devoid of a gun…and come to think of it, so was his own. Where had his standard issue gun gone? He'd had it five minutes ago, when he'd checked his holster on the way down.

He grinned and cracked his knuckles. Ah well. He'd figure out it out later. "I hope you're good at fist fights, buddy. No gun means clobbering time and I have a Christmas present to give you."

* * *

Yugi and his friends were not sure whether they should laugh or not.

Poor Atem had only been standing by the Mutou's Christmas tree. That was all he had been doing, really, until Jounouchi had accidentally bumped into the tree and knocked it on top of the Pharaoh.

Atem managed to extricate himself halfway out of the tree before he let loose a stream of what were supposed to be profanities in Egyptian—except his voice had suddenly vanished, resulting in Atem laying in the middle of the floor, pinned under a Christmas tree and soundlessly raging.

They exchanged glances. "Should we…help?" asked Anzu uncertainly.

"I don't even know what we're supposed to do," said Honda, looking in disbelief at Atem.

Yugi frowned, studying the trapped Pharaoh before he snapped his fingers. "I think I'm beginning to understand what's going on here!" he exclaimed, disappearing for a moment.

"Where are you going?" called Jounouchi as Yugi vanished into the storage room.

"I forgot to send that 4Kids company their Christmas gift and I happen to have a surplus of highly explosive Kuriboh plushies," came the annoyed reply. "This'll solve Atem's problem easily."


End file.
